For those who don't know what I mean when I say "styles of writing" I will, attempt to clarify the best way I know how. Below are very brief excerpts of books written in very different styles:
“Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment,as if the garment was stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out. The ADHD part of me wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades' underwear?”
― Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
“Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature. The starry sky, the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions, seems still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth. Such a man has a double existence: he may suffer misery, and be overwhelmed by disappointments; yet, when he has retired into himself, he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or folly ventures.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
“O serpent heart hid with a flowering face!
Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave?
Beautiful tyrant, feind angelical, dove feather raven, wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of devinest show, just opposite to what thou justly seemest - A dammed saint, an honourable villain!”
― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
If you come across written works that give the aforementioned effect on your feelings, I encourage you to analyze them. Ask yourself what it is about this piece of writing that strikes you as different or remarkable. What do you like about this? What do you wish the writer would have done differently? From here, almost automatically, you'll find that your writing style morphs to reflect what you appreciated from the thing you had just read, and that likewise you exclude that which you did not appreciate. You may also deliberately take pieces of a style and insert it into your own if you wish it. As for the quote by Jules Renard which I used to head this blog, think back to Picasso's style of painting. Would he be as renowned as he is today if he allowed himself to be held back by the trends of his day? What if he painted in the conventional way that everyone wanted to paint in? I'll leave you to think on that. Meanwhile, I'd advise you to start as described above, by using the styles of other writers to aid you. From there, don't be afraid to go your own way, and make a signature style that's all your own.